First Draft Rand Paul Questions the 'Today' Show Questions - New York Times

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Nick Corasaniti

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Senator Rand Paul has had two testy exchanges with TV interviewers since February.Credit Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

Barely a day into his presidential campaign, and only a couple of months after a testy exchange with another reporter, Senator Rand Paul is facing more criticism for his brusque tone with a television interviewer.

In an interview Wednesday morning with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” show, Mr. Paul took issue with her repeated questioning of his foreign policy positions, accusing her of “editorializing.”

“Why don’t you let me explain instead of talking over me?” Mr. Paul said, before instructing Ms. Guthrie on how he believes an interview should be conducted.

“Before we go through a litany of things you say I changed on, why don’t you ask me a question: Have I changed my opinion? That would be sort of a better way to approach an interview,” he said.

As Ms. Guthrie tried to repeat her question, Mr. Paul — the Republican senator from Kentucky who was interviewed remotely from New Hampshire, where he is spending a full day campaigning after his announcement to run for president on Tuesday — cut her off.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, listen, you’ve editorialized, let me answer a question,” he continued. “You ask a question and you say, have your views changed, instead of editorializing and saying my views have changed.”

The interview drew criticism on social media, reviving a Twitter hashtag “#Randsplaining,” a play on the term “mansplaining,” which is used to describe a conversation in which a man speaks in a condescending manner to a woman. The hashtag became popular months ago, after Mr. Paul was criticized for telling a female anchor, Kelly Evans of CNBC, to “calm down” during a February interview.

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